Page 11 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom (Faeted Seasons #2)

Meera

Heat shimmered in the distance, turning the jagged ridgelines into illusions that danced just out of reach.

My boots crunched on sand and something else—black pebbles?

No. Another of Sadie’s stones, strategically placed as makeshift markers .

Each one settled deeper in my gut, a silent warning wrapped in a breadcrumb trail.

Something was wrong. Not just with the terrain or the oppressive dual suns that beat down on us like punishment.

No, this wrongness clung to the magic in the air.

It hummed, but not in the familiar way Faerie did.

There was dissonance here. A tear. I wondered if this was the feeling of the twin realms that Vareck had described, but he never said he could sense the magic, just that its ability to split existed.

I swallowed past the dryness in my throat, pretending the tension in my chest was just dehydration. Vareck looked just as uncomfortable as I felt, which made me think we were both bad actors and couldn’t hide it from each other.

“You said earlier you don’t think these rocks are for me,” I began quietly. “But you do think it’s Sadie, right?”

Vareck didn’t answer at first. His eyes swept the horizon, every inch the Dark King—tactical, restrained, simmering just beneath the surface.

“I don’t know. There’s a discernible pattern and it doesn’t feel like a coincidence.

They’re too deliberate and evenly spaced.

That doesn’t sound like a creature from this realm.

That sounds distinctly human or fae. Someone wanted them seen, but I don’t know for what purpose. ”

I shivered despite the heat. “Let’s hope it was her.

Otherwise I’m following these stupid rocks right into a trap and we’re gonna die.

” Gods, wouldn’t that just be my luck? Some hell-bound demons, giggling right as a dumb fae walks right into their bubbling cauldron of potatoes and carrots. Fucking Amelia.

“I won’t let that happen.”

“Well, we may not have a choice. If whatever wants to eat us decides to boil us first, please kill me. I’m hot enough already. Just end it.”

He stiffened, clearly not liking my casual comments about impending death. Most of it was a joke. I was walking through hell. If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry, and I was so dehydrated, I probably couldn’t even cry if I wanted to.

We kept moving in silence, but a few paces later, I heard him sigh, and the sound of it put me on edge.

“Meera, we need to talk.”

I groaned. “I’m not talking about the mate thing right now.”

He growled softly. “This isn’t about that.”

I turned to face him, squinting as the bright light bearing down on us skewed my vision. “Unless you’re about to magic up a canteen of water and air conditioning, I’m really not in the mood to have a serious conversation about anything.”

His eyes flicked over me and I felt the weight of them. “You’re burning. Your skin; it's going to blister if we don’t find shade soon.”

“I’m not a porcelain doll, Vareck.”

“No, you’re a fair-skinned ginger resembling a lobster,” he said evenly.

“Hey—”

“And you’re about to collapse from heat exhaustion. Something I can’t treat here. So maybe take it easy?”

The worry in his tone caught me off guard. I blinked, and for a moment I didn’t see the fury who took me to bed or the king who’d collared me. I saw the man who’d watched me sleep like it meant something. Who laughed at my sarcasm and held me like I was something worth holding on to.

I tore my gaze away. “We keep moving. If Sadie left a trail, she had a reason. That means she’s close.”

“Or something else is,” he said, low and serious.

Before I could snap back, the ground beneath us shifted. Literally. A vibration rolled through the sand, subtle but distinct.

“What was that?”

We crouched, scanning the cracked terrain. Off to the left, the air shimmered differently. It bent in a way that wasn’t heat-induced. More like a ripple.

He grabbed my arm, pulling me closer instinctively. “Evorsus.”

A second later, the ripple flexed—and the world cracked.

The change sent me falling, or would have if Vareck hadn’t caught me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, palms pressing into them as a pressure built.

A headache was building at the base of my skull thanks to dehydration and whatever other bullshittery was going on.

He quickly wrapped both arms around me, holding me tight.

Another wave rolled through the atmosphere, sinking into my skin as the temperature noticeably changed. The world rattled and shook, and I felt as though I were spinning in a cyclone. Wind and shaking earth roared in my ears before it all fell silent and everything stilled.

“Open your eyes.”

Slowly, I dropped my hands and let my eyelids flutter open.

The first thing I realized was the trail had vanished, and a deep panic burrowed into my gut. The black markers that had been so perfectly spaced, guiding in the same direction my magic was leading me, had vanished. Just—poof. Gone. Like they’d never been there.

I stopped cold and spun in place. The sand that had surrounded us had disappeared. Not blown away. Just no longer there. Just like the rocks.

“What in the nine realms ...” I whispered.

Vareck stopped beside me. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, throat dry. “They were just here. You saw them.”

“I did,” he said softly. “They are still there, in Eversus. We aren’t. Welcome to Evorsus.”

You would think twin realms would be similar, but this was the complete opposite. No wind. No heat. The air was cool, hushed, almost reverent.

And the sky—gods, the sky was spectacular.

Gone were the dual suns that had tried to roast us alive. In their place, embedded in a deep violet canopy studded with stars, two moons glowed with a silver-blue, casting strange shadows over the terrain. One intact, and the other one broken.

Where the desert had stretched endlessly, dense forest now surrounded us.

Lush trees arched high above, their leaves glowing faintly in shades of emerald, sapphire, and amethyst. The ground beneath my boots was soft and mossy.

The air smelled like petrichor, violets, and something sweet I couldn’t place.

“This is incredible,” I whispered, my voice too small for the magnitude of what I was seeing. “How did we move to the other side? I know the realms touch, but I thought you had to cross between them.”

“We didn’t move; the realms did.” He gestured to the terrain. “They shifted around us. Eversus and Evorsus are two sides to the same coin, and the borders are unstable.”

Magic hummed through the trees. Not menacing, exactly, but aware. Watching. Sentient.

I swallowed hard. “So we’re just ... in Evorsus now. With no way back to Eversus?”

He nodded. “Not unless the realms move again. Eversus is the land of the twin suns. It’s a desert hellscape.

” That was putting it mildly. It looked and felt like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

“Evorsus is darker, and not just in the literal sense. Here, things are ... beautiful. Alluring. Because that’s what it’s trying to do. Lure you in.”

A chill skated down my spine, despite the temperate air. “Why did the portal drop us in Eversus and not here?”

“I don’t know. These realms bleed into each other. Sometimes you walk far enough in one and find yourself in the other. Sometimes,” he added with a glance upward, “they come to you.”

I pressed a fist against my chest, feeling for the thread.

Still there.

Still tugging.

“She’s here,” I said, feeling a combination of relief and despair. “Somewhere in this realm, or Eversus. I can see the thread still, but now that I’ve been to both, I have no idea which realm she’s actually in. It looks exactly the same. My magic can’t seem to distinguish between the two.”

“That answers our earlier question then.” His shoulders tightened slightly. “We should keep going. Follow the thread until something happens.”

“Something happens?” I repeated.

“Until we find Sadie, or until the land shifts again.”

“Awesome,” I muttered, adjusting the straps on my backpack before I followed the thread once more.

We walked in silence for a while, the glow of the forest lighting our way in shades of cerulean. It should’ve been beautiful. But unease scratched at my psyche, like an itch beneath my skin.

I broke the silence. “You said Evorsus tries to lure you in. What did you mean?”

He glanced sideways. “Eversus will kill you directly with heatstroke or dehydration. Evorsus makes you comfortable. Complacent. It plays with your mind, because it doesn't want to kill you. It wants to keep you.”

“Lovely. A hell realm with aesthetic.”

Despite the tension, his mouth twitched. “You’re not wrong.”

We kept moving, the forest thickening. Somewhere in the distance, a howl echoed, low and mournful. I stiffened.

Vareck placed a hand on my lower back. “We’re not alone in these woods. Don’t engage with anything. Some creatures here look harmless but aren’t. Others are worse.”

“Worse than not being harmless? That’s vague,” I said, and he sighed. “Worse how ?”

Vareck worked his jaw, considering my question. His hesitation made me worried, but what he settled on surprised me. “Among other things, furies originated from Evorsus.”

“I thought you said—” I broke off, trying to recall his words.

“They’re not from Eversus,” he said.

“Who named this stupid place? Ev e rsus. Ev o rsus. Fricken twin hells. It might as well be the same place. One has two suns, the other two moons. It’s literally day and night.”

He caught me by the elbow, his expression solemn. “They are very much not the same, day and night aside. Don’t make the mistake of confusing them just because of their unfortunate naming being so similar. One is designed to kill the body. The other is designed to kill the mind.”

“Okay, but if this one screws with people’s heads, I’m kind of surprised furies come from here and not Eversus.” I ran a hand through my sweat-soaked hair, scratching my scalp.

“Some would think that.”